{Quest Log} A New Adventure Begins...

Again an unexpected silence has fell upon the blog and it is frustrating to know after so many attempts to get my blogging swing back, it hasn't been right. However, unlike my previous unplanned hiatuses, my gaming activity has not been completely down. In fact, I had managed to finish running The Lost Mine of Phandelver with my gaming mates from my schooling days through the power of the internet (i.e. Roll20).

I may or may not return to complete the [Let's Look At] series that I had left off since I believe almost everyone by now would have familiarize themselves with the Basic Rules, if not the Players Handbook.

While the experience I've gathered from there would be a tale to tell another day, I'm (re)starting this new series of blog posts to put me on track to a regular posting schedule. I'm calling this the {Quest Log}; a simply log of my gaming adventures in real life. While I know not everyone loves to read about blow-by-blow details of the gaming sessions of other players, I'm making this a reason to make sure this blog doesn't stay dead too often.

For the inaugural post of this new series, I'm glad to announce that after running 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons as a DM, I have finally been given a chance to play it as a player!

An old gaming friend of mine has opted to run a test-run session, having found some time to catch up with the latest edition, and I couldn't be more voluntary to sign up. While I would also love to continue growing and learning about the new rules, it is always quite a different experience to use the rules from the perspective across the screen.

The DM this time would be running a homebrew and has already given us a title for the adventure. His synopsis is as below:

CONVOY FOR THE LAST PRINCE
It's the Age of Withering, and the world is dying. For hundreds of years, archmages in all the realms tried in vain to stop its slow death. When sustenance became scarce, the imminent doom drove everyone mad for their survival. Then one night the stars aligned and showed a young seer the answer: Exodus. Her followers constructed The Threshold - a colossal magical construct that maintains a portal to a young and lush new world.
Two generations later, in the twilight years of the Old World, the Great Exodus was almost complete. All have fled to the New world, but few chose to remain: those who protect The Threshold, those who refused to leave, and the Last Prince.

Already I'm liking the setup, though where all our characters would fit into this story (are we the last protectors? Or those making the Exodus?) hasn't been discussed and cleared yet, as of character generation.

Since our DM is stationed in a state away from us, we were called to game on Roll20 where we would convene for character generation. Character generation happened throughout the whole of last week and there was a total of 5 of us who turned up. Using the standard character generation rules from the Basic Rules, I created a Fighter. I hadn't put much thought of what kind of character I wanted to play before the gen session, but I was easily inspired and guided by the Backgrounds and Personality chapter to find the niche that I wanted to fill.

So I introduce to you: Mecurius Voltan

Fighter 1 (Background: Soldier, Specialty: Officer)

STR: 17 (+3)
DEX: 14 (+2)
CON: 16 (+3)
INT: 12 (+1)
WIS: 14 (+2)
CHA: 14 (+2)

Hitpoints: 13
AC: 16 (Chain Mail)

Melee Weapons:
Pike (+5 to Hit, 1d10+3 Piercing Damage), Long Sword (+5 to Hit, 1d8+3 Slashing Damage)

Ranged Weapons:
Light Crossbow (+4 to Hit, 1d8 Piercing Damage)

Skills Proficiency:

• Animal Handling (from Soldier Background)
• Athletics (from Soldier Background)
• Intimidation (from Class)
• Perception (from Class)

Tools Proficiency:

• Vehicle, Land (from Soldier Background)
• Gaming Set (Dice) (from Soldier Background)

Our first gaming session could happen in about a week from now. I hope I will be able to post about it when it finally happens. 

{Quest Log} Restarting the Quest

Gosh, it's been more than a year since my last update. This post certainly wasn't what I had intended to follow-up my last post, but it just goes to show how gaming has been so detached in my life in the past year. From resigning my job, getting relocated to a new town, finding my feet in a new job, new place and a new life, gaming has certainly been put on the back burner once again. So far back that the RPG Herald has become defunct.

Now, with a new boring job that seems to show a semblance of more peace and more controllable disposable free time, gaming has once again resurfaced into the agenda and so not wanting to digress to bore you with the details about how my non-gaming life has affected my gaming, I'm back.

Aptly enough with the start of this new year, the RPG Blog Carnival has set up its tent for New Beginnings, so I took it as a wonderful opportunity to restart my blogging as a questing gamer. I don't know what are my future plans for this blog will be, so I think I will be going with the flow this time around as I go through some of my older posts to pick up on any old ideas that I wanted to write about, or restart my presence in the RPG Bloggers Network and the RPG Bloggers Alliance. I have no gaming resolutions for this year (after not meeting any single one of it for 2011), so I'll just be slowly getting my swing back for gaming.

I believe much have happened in the gaming world during my absence for the whole year, so there's plenty of catching up to do. In the meantime, I'll be revisiting old friends in the bloggersphere, but let me just say that it's good to write for this blog again.   

{Quest Log} There comes an age....the Dragon Age

Hey all! It's been months since I last updated and real life has been tumultuous along the way. Since my last entry, I was employed into a new job and work basically took over my life again. In the meantime, my group had stopped roleplaying but continued playing boardgames. However that soon also fell through as they seem to lose the enthusiasm for it and got busy with other commitments. After long periods without any gaming activity, I thought that it was about time that I started the urge again to roleplay as characters and roll some dice.

It was coincidentally that I was about to launch into new plans of gaming when Free RPG Day went by and some of the print offerings (which I missed because there's no store that participates in Free RPG Day here) had been put up as free PDFs by their respective publishers. So I thought that it was a good time to check for any quick-start rules of new games that we could try.

So it was there I decided to pick up Green Ronin's Dragon Age quick start rules and have browsed through it several times over the past weeks or so. What I really liked about the AGE system is because it uses an abundance of d6s, which means that it's open to new players who don't have their own set of polyhedrals.

Now I'm eager to try running it with the sample adventure attached at the back and I plan to do my prep notes and thoughts on the quickstart rules and the adventure here. Just so that readers here will have something new to read again at the Questing GM.

On the other side of things, the RPG Herald is almost 3 months old now and I barely noticed how time flies as I try to keep posting on the latest news in the RPG industry. There's been some times when it was hard to keep up, but at this point in time, I'm glad to say that I'm happy with how diversified my news items are and how much it has expanded my knowledge about the RPG industry along the way.

Although the hits are still very low, but I would encourage any gamer to check it out if they want to know on the latest news and products that are available on the market. It's definitely the news site to watch if you are into multiple RPGs rather than just being a loyal fanboy to one system.

I'd also appreciate it if you would spread the word around about the RPG Herald because it needs the hits that it can get.

In the meantime, I've already had some ideas of new features to be added in this blog for months but haven't been able to really implement them yet. Just thought that I should mentioned it so that I can remind myself to give this blog a new revival of content.

Keep reading the Questing GM on my prep for the Dragon Age Quickstart Rules

{Quest Log} Gamma World is Crazy Whacky Fun!

Last Friday, I had my first taste of Gamma World when a group mate of mine, Bryan, who bought the boxed set, decided to let us have a go at it. So me, and four others of various levels of experience with 4E would be playing as characters while the group mate who bought the game took the honours of being the ever dutiful GM (I guess you call them the Gamma-Master?).

When I arrived, the group were already in the early process of character generation but I managed to pick it up quickly due to the similarities it had with 4E. It was interesting to see that some of the other players who had only relied on the Character Builder when they started playing 4E, was having a hard time understanding the process.

I rolled an Empath Felinoid (which I named Mind Catrol) on the origins and had below average stats except for Wisdom and my origins ability scores. It was pretty nostalgic to roll random stats with 3d6 again. The whole process took us about an hour and a half, as we went through the 'eehh' and 'ahh' moments when trying to figure out how the process works.


Our gaming group for the session. That's me at the far right, in white. Bryan, our GM for the night, is the one in orange on the left.

After that an Empath Felinoid, a Seismic Giant, a Speedster Yeti, an Electrokinetic Telekinetic and an Android Cockroach were on their way to investigate the source of some robots rumbling down a hill to fire missiles at our homes before self-destructing for good measure.

It was here that me and everyone on the table knew that this game was not to be taken seriously even by chance. So we just had our fill of making quirky quotes, roleplaying our characters in the funniest way we think it would be appropriate and just went along with the weird whacky fun.

Combat encounters started easily enough outside the tower where the robots were coming from but once we got in, it showed that we weren't the toughest party except for the Giant who was taking most of the hits unscathed thanks to her Resist 5 to physical damage.



It was probably the first time that I saw the players didn't plan their strategies and tactics in-combat than while playing 4E, so we were just going with the flow of what we wanted to do and combat moved pretty fast. The game was so random, especially with the Alpha Mutations and Omega Tech cards, that we just wanted to try out what we had instead of planning to best ways to attack the enemies.

Unfortunately for our Speedster Yeti, he suffered a terrible irony where the only thing he was fastest at was dying (he also rolled the lowest initiative for all combat). But he was able to quickly generate a new character while we were still in combat and wade in a few rounds after that.

Our Speedster Yeti died the fastest in the group. At least he has fast at *something*

The session ended after the group managed to destroy a machine at an underground level underneath the tower and killed a group of crossbow wielding badgers with a couple of them having psychic fear inducing abilities which managed to knock most of us bloodied with one hit. My character, the Seismic Giant and the Speedster Yeti were dead after that encounter but we had our fill of crazy whacky fun during the game.

Overall, I like the randomness of the game as it feels like a different pace of the 4E rules. The random Alpha Mutations and Omega Tech at every encounter is the cause for all kinds of laughter we had that night and it just pushed us to go for that whacky idea in combat. In my mind, those cards alone were good motivations to roleplay in combat than I could ever achieve with D&D 4E.


This one just opened a whole can of laughs when one of us drew this.

However, I don't know if I can see myself running this in the long term, or if it was meant to be used for a long term campaign. It's a good break after all the sometimes stressful math crunching and combat tactics of the 4E system and it's definitely seems to be meant as a more humorous and lighter tone of 4E.

I will admit that I'm still pretty unclear about some of the rules after the session, other than the ones from 4E but with my character dead, I'm not sure if I really want a second dose of this. Still, it was a fun game nonetheless and some of the other players are eager to continue on with the adventure. I would recommend this if you want to have a some crazy whacky fun game night.

{Quest Log} Happy Valentines, Gamma World and Need Some Advice on Session Recordings

First of all, happy Valentine to those who are celebrating the day (hmm...it just passed a few minutes here as I'm writing this) with their loved ones. Just wanted to take this opportunity to post a little of what I've been doing on the gaming front these past weeks.

Gaming
My first one-shot session of the year went well, although the player we had it for didn't manage to have his last game before he upped from town and moved to the capital for work. I wish him all the best, though we will miss him.

The one-shot ended up being a two-shot session since the first two encounters took a little longer than expected. So we saved the climatic last encounter which lasted for the whole of the second session. It was a blast, but had no much to mention about, except for that it showed how rusty I have been with GMing.

I regretted not taking photos of the session, so I could show you guys our gaming group and remember the great moments we had during the session. Recording my gaming sessions has been something on my mind for a while. I do know there are sites that do live-stream or keeping voice recordings of their games but I wonder if anyone here who has done this before would be willing to share their experience, and what equipment do you use for recording your session?

This week, my gaming group invited me over for a game of Gamma World during the weekend. I'll admit that I'm not as hyped for this 'boardgame-RPG hybrid' (at least from what I've heard) but am willing to try it none the less. Any tips anyone would like to share while playing this game?

Silver Marches Wiki
Progress of my Silver Marches wiki is going slowly but steady, I'm already starting to get into the city entries. Once I'm done with that, I still have the regional history, organizations and NPCs to deal with. But overall, things are going well at the moment.

Blogging
Only in the second month of the year and I'm already not being able to keep to my new year resolutions. But I haven't been completely absent for the past weeks in the bloggersphere, it's just that I've restarted seriously contributing RPG-related news to the Purple Pawn, so my posts were mostly there than here.

I'm still playing with an idea of putting up my notes for the one-shot I did if I sorted them properly, would anyone like to see them?

{Quest Log} New Year Resolutions for 2011

2010 has generally been a year where my gaming has taken a big hit. New job, new life, new priorities means that gaming has been taking a real backseat for the past year, as you can tell with this blog going really quiet compared to in the past.

It's hard to imagine sometimes that this blog has been around for more than 2 years and looking back at some of the old posts, it does show how the quality and quantity over the years has been a dead drop.

While I won't say that these resolutions that I have in mind for this year are the sure things that I want to keep due to real-life circumstances, I think this post should be a good reminder of what I plan to do with my gaming life for this year.

Game More
Since I started my new job, I've only had a handful of sessions last year. This is due to scheduling conflicts with my day offs with my player's (I work during the weekends).

But things are looking slightly brighter at the end of the year as work is starting to stabilize and it's easier to plan ahead for gaming sessions. So, this year, I plan to run or play in a gaming session at least once a more, if not on a weekly basis.

So far, my Eberron one-shot is coming out really well and I should be running it soon sometimes during January 2011, which makes me excited. Probably would do a post about how it goes.

Finish My Silver Marches Wiki
Progress on this has been slower than I like. I admit that procrastination is among the faults of why it is still undone. At this point, I'm almost done with the wilderness aspect of the wiki and am making headway into databasing the cities of the region.

I hope to get it done as soon as possible within this year, so that I can run a 'Western Marches' style sandbox campaign with it that will sustain my gaming life for a very long time to come.

Blog More
I've told myself many a times that I would get this blog back up to speed to whatever glory days it had, if any.

Unfortunately, my detachment from 4E has been so long that I've gone completely out of touch and have little interest to support whatever WoTC does with the IP.

While I claim many a times that Pathfinder is my new love, I have yet to really take a deep crack into the rules system and decipher them.

At the moment, I'm forseeing that this blog will be filled with more personal posts about my games and session preps than actual 'real' content for gamers to share. My plan is to increase my frequency back to a weekly, if not twice monthly basis.

I'm still open to do reviews but I doubt that I'm really the right person, with the right experience to say anything reliable. I've also been playing around with an idea of including more RPG news into this blog but I think it would be more appropriate if it was in another blog. What do you think?


That's all really, these gaming goals/resolutions are simple and intentionally abstract since they do collide with my personal and real-life resolutions.

I don't need overly complicated ones like learn and play a new rules system, a new genre or introducing the game to new players when I know full well I can't maintain or achieve those goals.

Maybe those will come later when real life circumstances permit. Do feel free to share what are your gaming resolutions this year and how you plan to go about them.

Happy New Year and keep on rolling those dices!

{Quest Log} The news of my death have been greatly exaggerated...

Just wanted to post some thoughts and update which doesn't fit into a tweet and to remind the RPG Bloggers Network undertaker that this blog is still alive and is not waiting to be raised yet.

So after nearly a six month hiatus from gaming except for a sprinkle of one-shot sessions, I've finally managed to end up getting back into the DM's hotseat once again.

The main reason for this isn't because my work schedule has settled down somewhat but because one of the players would be leaving us for about a year, due to work, and he wanted to get his hands dirty with some dice before leaving. Plus, I was offered to run a game since our resident GM wants to play again.

This was a fine opportunity to get back into DMing but not the more permanent basis which I had hoped for.

The plan is to run the sessions in January and would probably last for two weekly sessions. So modules are out of the question and I'm thinking of going for an extended delve or two separate delves each week.

The game would be 4e and I'm looking to set the players at 5th level with the default party size of five, probably set in Eberron.

At the moment, I'm really not sure what sort of adventure I would like to run, so I'm soliciting for any kind reader to throw me a bone so that my dog-brain will have something to gnaw (though I've been looking up at the Order of the Emerald Claw a lot last night).

That's all to say that the news of my death have been greatly exaggerated...

{Quest Log} Some Stuff I'm Planning to Buy

Since I've started working less than a year ago, I'm finally earning my own cash to spend more on RPGs than I had before as a kid.

One thing about being an adult is that you become a little more cautious on how you are going to spend your hard earned money and purchase decisions are made more carefully after serious considerations and research.

After months of budgeting and savings (I don't earn that much), I'm ready to make my first splurge on RPGs products that I've had my eyes on since I got my first paycheck.

Here's my current wishlist of stuff that I've been wanting to buy:

1. Dungeon Tiles & Minis
2. Pathfinder Bestiary
3. Fantasy Craft
4. Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Setting

Minis and Dungeon Tiles, in my opinion, have a much higher reuse value than supplements, considering the rate that they go 'obsolete' nowadays. You can always reuse an old mini or tile for a different system but you can't really do it with a supplement for another system, unless you convert it.

I was going to go ahead with Fantasy Craft and Pathfinder Chronicles but after doing some digging, I've read that both of them will be having a second print run soon so they got pushed down the priority list.

Fantasy Craft will be adding some major erratas and changes and I've read that the second print run books will be out by GenCon. In the meantime, if you already have a PDF copy of the first print, you can get the updated second print for free.

Meanwhile, the Pathfinder Chronicles is going to be replaced as the Pathfinder Campaign Setting World Guide - Inner Sea which was due out in September but Lisa Stevens has confirmed me that it would be out by 2011.

The Bestiary is currently in its second print run and from the sounds of it, if I purchased it now, it should have the erratas printed in it.

So it looks like I'll be waiting for Fantasy Craft and Pathfinder Chronicles which gives me more money to spend on minis and Dungeon Tiles.

Getting back on track

It's been ages since I've last posted here and I'm putting this post to remind myself that I need to start getting back to blogging. To explain my absence, I can only say that I've started a full time job in the past few months and, as expected, it has taken its toll on my game and blogging time.

Now that I'm gradually getting used to the fast-pace and long hours of the job and knowing what to expect out of it, I'm finally able to settle down and try to strike a balance between my personal life and gamer life.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to refurbish the furniture around here, so I hope you also like the new theme I've put up.

Another reason I'm putting up this post because during my hiatus, it has given my plenty of time to reflect on what I want to do and set new directions.

When I started the blog 2 years ago, I already had in mind a few things that I wanted to focus on, particularly about GMing, my personal styles and preferences with the occasional sprinkle of gaming news to inform my local gaming community.

After joining the RPG Bloggers Network, that focus shifted to almost the opposite direction. There I read numerous posts with great content that contained pieces of advice on gaming that it had become almost like every gamer blog should be done this way.

That's where I made my mistake, I conformed; conformed to the high standards that is the RPGBN that was just too high for me to reach with my limited experience, both as a GM and as a gamer.

To be honest, I took it like it was a competition amongst bloggers to produce the best content or to attract the most readers when you are surrounded by peers that emphasised on these things.

Over the course of time, I realized that I don't have the financial, skill and knowledge to make the cut which lead to the slow death of my enthusiasm and attachment to the community.

During my hiatus, I still continued lurking around forums and other blogs and I came to a realization. RPGs is not a game where everyone can have an equal opinion, the same goes with every arguments about editions, old school vs new school and or what rule is broken or unbalanced.

Every gaming experience on one table is unique for its own existence. We can discuss similarities between our games but we don't necessarily share them.

There were many things I wanted to say about various subjects but was too afraid that I would be disagreed by my fellow RPG bloggers, I was too careful with my opinions which partly became a barrier to express myself.

I don't intend for that to happen again.

So I hereby set a new course for the blog and what you can expect to see more and less in my future posts.

• The direction will be more personal than communal from now on, which means that you'll see more 'I's and 'my's than 'We's and 'our's. Every post that I make from now on is more likely to be a personal opinion, despite how controversial or stupid it may sound and is not trying to conform itself to any kind of acceptable standard (if there was any). What I say is my own and only applies to me.


• Post schedule is, at the moment, still uncertain but will try to stick along the lines of once weekly.


• Due to my work schedule, I'm planning to drop some features namely the Questing's Readings because my time to read, decide and compile which post makes it to the post is limited.


• On the other hand, I want to see how my personal and gaming life is progressing, so features such as the {Quest Log} might be back more often. New features are also in the works but you can be sure it's something more personally relevant.


• I'm adding a rant label so to anyone who wish to avoid the occasional bile that comes out from a rancid gamer, I have placed the labels at the top of my posts so that you won't be caught unaware. You have been warned.


• I'm adding comment moderation. Partly to have control over the spam that I'm starting to get, partly to avoid all out war in my blog based on my discretion.


• Gaming news might appear once in a while but as far as I'm concerned, Word of Wizards is dead in the water from now on (if it wasn't apparent months ago). This has something to do with my severed detachment with 4E in terms of news (I'm sure Wyatt will understand).


• I might get really frustrated at times and might incline towards trolling. If I make any rude remarks with links or mentions to names, blogs, forums, organizations and thereof, please be ensured that all is done in good faith with tongue in cheek. You don't have to take my personal opinions too seriously (.......yet).

That's all for now and I will inform you if I do add more but I think these are sufficient to inform my fundamentals and the expected change of tone and content that this blog is going to have from now on.

So now that this is off my chest, it's good to be back and roll some initiative.

{Quest Log} Pre-Campaign Blues

After going through the disastrous TPK during our one-shot session, the group has decided that they like to move on to a long term campaign.

I proposed to the group that we should go through all the published modules from Wizards and so we are picking up H1 Keep on the Shadowfell this coming weekend. From there, I intend to move along through each module and tie them together as an episodic campaign.

It's been a while since I've run a campaign so I've been a little rusty in trying to get things organize and remember what should you prepare during the pre-campaign.

I've wanted to run a pre-campaign session where I could get the players together and discuss a little about how are we going to tie their characters into the setting. Unfortunately, work called up and I had to cancel the pre-campaign met.

So we had to do most of the char gen and discussion over a local forum where most of my players are members of (it even has a sub-board for D&D so it was appropriate to have them there anyway) and would go straight for the session this Saturday. While I would have much prefered a face-to-face meetup because then ideas could be bounced back and forth between the players and the DM on the spot but through the forum, we managed to most of the character generation process, questions and answers done.

Despite the hassles that we had with the character builder, our group once again decided to give it a second-shot and it was important that I lay down some houserules of how should the character generation process be done.

On the day of work, I managed to bump into one of my old players and he mentioned that he was interested in trying some 4E. That's quite a nice blessing in disguise as our group had only 4 players and an addition would make it an ideal 5-man party.

Eventually, I asked the other group members and they were ok with the new player (which most of them happen to know the guy IRL). I passed him my char gen houserules and a link to the free version of the character builder. Hopefully, there won't be any mishaps again this time.

While the Character Builder really does make generating a character a really quick process, I don't think that it really reduces the amount of time spend on creating a character in a campaign. What the Builder does is that it gives players more time to spend on deciding their character backgrounds (which is probably where all the time should be spent anyway).

Since this was going to be a campaign with episodic links, I figured that it would still be best if the players could come up with background information for their characters so that I could tie them into the Nentir Vale.

I think my biggest mistake at this point is that I forgot to give them any information about the setting that they would be play in but I expect that they would be able to come up with some generic ones and I can work the details in with them after that.

Although they have already chosen their backgrounds from PHB 2, so far only 2 out of my 5 players have fully fleshed out their character background and I'm only wondering do the remaining players need a little information to help them with their decision. What I can do to rectify this problem at the moment is post up some little information about the setting that they playing in on the forum and hopefully we can flesh out the details on the session itself.

I'm starting to feel my way into running and organizing a campaign but it feels like I'm back to square one and have lots to do at the moment.

Do you think that I should have done the pre-campaign face-to-face meetup or should have posted up the information much earlier to help with their character background process?

Let me know as I enjoy the feedback.

{Quest Log} Let's This Party Started Part 5

In my previous entry, the players were just ready to go into the final encounter. Last week, we finally wrapped up that encounter with a session that took a good chunk of 1 to 2 hours. The following is a summary of what happened and my thoughts on the session.

The Final Showdown
At this point since it was intended to be a short session and a couple of players were running short on time, all the plot had been thrown out of the window and the PCs just wanted to get their weekly dosage of 4E combat. In case, you had forgotten who the PCs are, here's a little recap for you.

• Zed, level 1 human rogue
• Durnkash, level 1 dragonborn fighter
• Narakh Nukem, level 1 dragonborn warlock
• Chant, level 1 tiefling bard

The PCs burst into the final room with a tough climatic fight ahead of them. This was what they were up against;

EL 4

• 1 Hobgoblin Commander (Level 5 Soldier/Leader)
• 1 Bugbear Warrior (Level 5 Brute)
• 4 Hobgoblin Grunt (Level 3 Minion)
• 1 Hobgoblin Warcaster (Level 3 Controller/Leader)

Once initiative was rolled, the rogue and fighter went in first and wrecked havoc on the enemy lines, heading straight for the warcaster. This was followed by the warlock who hurled his dragon breath but it only managed to kill one minion while the rest of the enemies made their save.

The PCs were getting a big head start and things were looking well for them when I saw that they have penetrated the enemy lines, breaking their formation which ruined my initial tactical plans, separating the hobgoblins to benefit from their Phalanx Soldier ability. I certainly wasn't expecting the PCs to break through the lines and head straight for the warcaster which they assumed was the easiest to take out.

Then things turned out for the worse once I started moving my minions around, followed by the Bugbear Warrior and the Commander flanking the dragonborn and knocking him down in a single round.

The warcaster held up pretty well on its own despite being engaged in melee combat early on. Shock Staff was a real pain and I was surprised to see that it could deal so much damage.

Things pretty much went downhill for the PCs after that with them rolling badly and my dices were getting hot. Sad to say, despite the PCs efforts, the session ended with a TPK.

Post-Session Wrap Up
At the end of the session, I talked to the players about what went wrong and here are some of the reasons which I felt were the main factors of their defeat.

1. Initiative Mess Up
I was the one holding onto the initiative which I had written down on a notepad. During several rounds I messed up the order of who goes first, sometimes resulting in some characters having their turn skipped completely. Although I gave them extra turns to compensate for those lost turns, I think this was one major deciding factor which caused them to lost a tactical edge and the encounter overall.

This was clearly my fault in the encounter and while I know there are many ways to overcome this, I will be looking for an alternative that best suits my group.


2. Bad Dice Day
As weird as things like this shouldn't happen, it does. One of the players had just bought a new set of dices and while we were playfully rolling the d20 before the session started, it didn't roll any higher than 15 with most of the rolls being within 1 to 5. This carried over into the session and it was enough to get this player believe in dice superstitions. Hopefully he won't punish them in a microwave or something.

On the other hand, things could also get worse if the DM was having a good dice day. My minions went through two dragon breaths from the dragonborns in the party and each breath only managed to take down one minion. Damage dices rolled above average on average which dished out lots of damage with the bugbear warrior rolling d12 and the warcaster shock staff (which recharged on every turn btw) rolling 2d10s.

Thankfully this was only a one-shot but I have seen bad dice days ruining the mood and energy of the session and sometimes even cause the death of campaigns.

So, yeah. We pinned down one major factor of the loss to crappy dice-rolling.


3. Taking a Breath
One question that I posed to them after the session was how ready were their characters for the encounter. Most of them were slightly wounded when they decided to barge in with just a few hitpoints shy from their total.

I don't know if going into a tough encounter with just a few hitpoints away from your max makes you unprepared for combat but after how the session went, I'm inclined to think that a even a single hitpoint difference is going to make a huge difference. At least that's my theory.

Another underlying factor that I might consider is that the PCs didn't spend their Second Wind throughout the combat. I'm not sure if they were taken out too quickly to let them use it or they were aiming too hard to take down the warcaster or the commander. But forgetting to spend your Second Wind when things aren't looking good is probably one way to swing the combat your way so it's best not to forget using them.

It was still a great session in the end despite the TPK. I think the players have learned a thing or two about combat in 4E which seems to be more tactical than cinematic in the sense that the PCs would have to think more in numbers than in dramatic effects.

I certainly learned a bit more too and would think that the warcaster would make a good melee opponent without the commander.

After this one-shot, the group decided that we would like to play in a long term campaign. I proposed that we go through the WotC modules as I try to string them together into a campaign and we would be char gening this coming weekend.

So stay tune for our next adventure starting with H1 Keep on the Shadowfell!

If you have any thoughts about how this session went or have any suggestions on correcting any mistakes that we have done, please feel free to drop a comment! We would love to hear your thoughts!

{Quest Log} Let's Get This Party Started 3 & 4

First of all, sorry for not updating last week. I'm still trying to balance my life between play time and work time and working at a game store doesn't help very much because priorities can get a little mixed. It has not only affected my biological clock but also my blogging routine which some of you may know has been greatly reduced.

So, to make up for last week I will be making this entry doubly long for your reading (or despairing) pleasure.

Final Prep
After two weeks of bad planning and schedule clashes on my part, we confirmed 4 players and set a date for character generation using the free character builder and discuss on when and where should we be playing. The party consist of:

• Zed, Human Rogue
• Chant, Tiefling Bard
• Kurndash, Dragonborn Fighter
• Narakh Nukem, Dragonborn (infernal) Warlock

After char gen, we agreed on a date and location for the game to be held. Seeing that neither of the players' houses would be convenient to have us in, we agreed to play in a boardgame cafe called Carcaseon.

Normally, the cafe is meant for people who wants to play any of the boardgames they offer but after speaking with the owner, he was alright with us bringing in our own grinds, miniatures, dices and the whole lot as long as we paid for drinks.

For the adventure, in between procrastination and working hours, I planned out 5 encounters with a goblinoid theme. As I said in my previous post, goblins are a very versatile monster race. With the right mix of minions, lurkers, soldiers, controllers and leaders, you could easily make encounters ranging from EL 1 to 4.

I was having the most trouble designing a skill challenge. My initial approach was trying to scientifically build a skill challenge that would present a challenge at the same time allowing the PCs to shine. Although it would be rewarding for the characters, it actually places a limit on your imagination when you are thinking of matching both criteria. In the end, I went with designing a skill challenge that matches with the narrative of the adventure than matching it with the characters.

With the framework of encounters and skill challenge laid out, all that was left is to create a narrative to tied them up together. I was actually stumped for ideas that wasn't cliche at first until the very last hours before the game was about to start. After writing some general notes and sketching out the battle grinds for each encounter, I was prepared enough for the game.

Character Builder FAIL!
What I am about to say about the Character Builder may seem like I'm blaming it but I believe it's more of a matter that the character builder just doesn't sync with our group style. It might actually be because we are just not used to it or expect too much from it.

Nevertheless after this one-shot, we pretty much agreed that we won't be using the Character Builder again until something convinces us otherwise. In terms of usability and convenience, it actually created more hassle for us than solve them.

One issue that I have about the builder is during the equipment stage. When Chant's player double clicked on the equipment that he wanted, the builder added it into his character list at no cost. Without realizing at first that he was 'buying' equipment for free and when we later found out that he was not being charged for it, we sold the items which caused a great imbalance in the amount of cash he was having.

Although it didn't affect the one-shot game since they didn't had to spend anything for the adventure, it was still weird that double-clicking an item in the equipment stage, adds rather than buys the item.

Another minor complaint that I have for the builder is that while giving us the character sheets filled in is very nice, it isn't transferable if the other computer doesn't have the builder. This made printing out the sheets a problem for us since the group didn't have a printer connected to a PC that has the builder in it. In the end, we had to borrow the cafe's printer and plug it into my laptop.

It would have been better if there was a way to turn the completed character sheets into a pdf file or something that doesn't require the builder.

After the character generation, I asked one of the more experienced players if they prefer using the builder or doing things with good old pencil and paper and his answer reflected my sentiments exactly about the builder. While the builder is really fast, our style of character generation is more to planning the progression of the character than to simply put them together.

On the other hand, the inclusion of the power cards in the character sheet was very handy to the extent that it feels like a must-have for the 4E table. However, a couple of the players who were completely new to the system found it a little confusing to understand the numbers.

One of them in particular didn't understand how the builder could calculate out a certain number for his powers and it was hard to deduce the modifiers since it doesn't state out the exact calculation. The other player who was playing the rogue, thought that the formatting of the numbers made it harder to understand how much damage he dealt including his sneak attack and didn't realize that he had made a mistake until after the session.

That basically sums up our experience with the builder and we probably won't be using it again to generate characters except for filling in the numbers and printing out the sheets after we have made our choices on paper.

The One-Shot Session
The gist of the adventure is that the PCs have to track a warband of goblins that raided a heavily armed caravan, looting everything particularly magical items which belonged to the town wizard who hired them. After following them to the nearby marsh, they find the goblin encampment beside a half-sunken eladrin keep and enter it to find the stolen goods.

Combat was generally fun with some good laughs at the 4E mechanics like the warlock giving the enemies the finger as his way of cursing them. I didn't feel the grind that some complained about combat. In fact, I, as the DM, was having more fun during combat than I was in 3.x because the battle changes almost on every turn when monsters and PCs throw powers at each other.

I managed to see forced movement in play with the bard using Shout of Triumph and my goblins using Goblin Tactics which really adds a tactical dimension to battles. I noticed that there's quite a large disparity between the damage being dealt by PCs and monsters with the latter doing much less when they are fighting toe-to-toe against the PCs.

When the PCs reached the skill challenge which was to find a way into the half-sunken keep whether by swimming or climbing to the top of the battlement, I used the DC in the rules update and it was easily overcome when the PCs simply decided to just take 10 on them. It wasn't a real challenge at all and the PCs didn't even notice that they had just went through one.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe the DC was just too low or I shouldn't have allowed them to take 10 for skill checks in a skill challenge.

I didn't even bother counting successes and I'm not sure if there's a point of doing that. I just let them through as long as they came up with a solution that sounds reasonable enough to overcome the skill challenge.

Anyone has some suggestions or something to point out about running skill challenges?

Wrapping Up and Post-Session
We didn't manage to finish the one-shot after 5 hours but we ended with a good cliffhanger at the entrance of the last encounter. Everyone had a great time despite moments in between encounters where I slipped due to lack of detailed preparation.

We are currently planning for the next session which should be a short one just to go through the final encounter. I'm thinking whether I should add in another encounter to extend the gaming hours. What do you think about putting two EL4 encounters back-to-back with a short rest in between? Do you think the PCs (they are level 1 by the way) would be able to hold it up?

Overall, 4E seems to stick well with me and the new players despite the technical stumbles we had before the game. It would be interesting to see whether this game would be our system of choice for a long term campaign which we might do after we finish with this delve.

{Quest Log} Let's Get This Party Started Part 2

The bad news is that the game didn't happen because I had forgotten that I had another commitment which clashed with the gaming schedule. The good news for that is that I've got more time to prep for the adventure and I finally know what I would like to be playtesting for 4E.

I've managed to get 3-4 interested players but would like to have one more to try out the new default number of 5. I think having just one more player than usual could change the feel and the pace of the game while at the same time it would be interesting to see how the math adds up to affect the balance. In the meantime, having a system that can accommodate more players is always good when you have too much players.

I'm planning it to be a 5 encounter one-shot delve that could be finished in one evening session with a big bad solo to wrap it up. I've pinpointed two specific mechanics that I would to see my players use and challenge them.

• Skill Challenges
• Forced Movements

For Forced Movements, I would probably be needing a large combat map sprinkled with traps and terrain obstacles to be exploited against the big bad. I'm not sure what skill challenges I would want to implement though but considering that it's most likely in a dungeon, it might be used to bypass a deadly trap.

Another problem that I'm facing is what monsters to throw at them. My first choice would be the kobolds but seeing that they appear on almost every published adventure there is for first level characters, I think I should mix things up with something else.

My second choice would be goblins which has a good range of weak to strong challenges for first level characters and has some tricky abilities up their sleeves (Goblin Tactics and Hobgoblin Resilience) to conuteract the PC's powers.

Any suggestions of what else I could/should be playtesting to get a proper feel of 4E? Any ideas of the skill challenge and the adventure synopsis would also be much appreciated.

{Quest Log} Let's Get This Party Started

After 3 grueling years wasting away in an oil town that is devoid of any semblance that can remind me of any gaming activity, I'm finally back in my hometown and ready to game again.

Ever since I've been back, some of my group mates are already bugging me to get a campaign going but I've decided to squeeze a one-shot session this coming weekend (saturday or sunday) instead. That's right, after one year, I finally get my first taste of 4E!

But then panic attack strikes. I'm afraid of how the session would turn out to be and it makes my knees jerk. I haven't been DMing for 3 years and 4E is a completely new system for me. Even though I've learned the basic ropes and tricks, I'm not sure if I'm ready to run it yet. Other than my lack of knowledge (and confidence), I'm also ill-equipped. No power cards, no miniatures, no battle grids and other gaming supplies. Speaking of which, where's my dice?

I'm already having nightmares that this first session is going to turn into a complete disaster because of boring grinds and a waste of time due to plenty of book flipping.

I don't even know which adventure do I want to run. It has to be able to fit into a single evening session (4 hours?) so I'm not going for H1 Keep on the Shadowfell this time. I'm thinking of just picking up the level 1 dungeon from Dungeon Delves but I don't want to turn it into a grind fest where my first taste of 4E is simply 3 combat encounters rolled together.

In between being excited that I get to organize a game after so long, reading up on the rules to ensure that I don't make mistakes, selecting and prepping the adventure and looking for impromptu gaming supplies, I'm in a messy situation right now.

Ahh! The perfectionist in me wants to get everything right the first time!

I'll keep you posted on what happens next week (if everything goes well).

What about you? Have you ever felt this way when you are getting back in gaming after a long hiatus?

I don't mind taking suggestions on what I should do too, if you have any good ideas.

{Quest Log} Why Do People Become Evil or Become Heroes

This feature was supposed to be once a week but I've also missed a week while I was still busy with my assignments so consider this as a payback and this video was just too good to pass up.

It's a talk on why do ordinary people become evil and how do they become heroes. Needless to say, this has a lot of information that we can use for our games, whether as a villain or as a hero. It explains on the reasons why people cross the line and what makes a hero.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO ALSO CONTAINS VIOLENT, GRUESOME AND EVEN SEXUALLY DISTURBING IMAGES SO IT'S NSFW AND NOT FOR THE UNPREPARED.



Share your thoughts and how would you use this video.

{Quest Log} What Is Your Party Alignment?

Although every party member is allowed to have different alignments, it is often ignored by those who hires the party for a job. It sometimes irks me that in some published adventures, it is always assumed that, despite the different shades of grey of each character, they are always ready to act as protectors of justice and will never turn away from the pleas of the innocent.

That is a very weak plot hook that will eventually lose its luster in a long running campaign and it totally sidesteps the colorful characters that players have dedicated a small amount of time to building. Afterall, if they are treated as virtuous heroes all the same even when they are all chaotic evil, then why bother picking an alignment?

I think one way to remedy this disparity between individual alignment and having plot hooks is to not only allow players to choose their own alignment but also have a party alignment. A party alignment can be the moral common ground in which all party members are willing to cooperate despite any differences in principles, morals or alignment. It can also represent the fame or notoriety of the party for their deeds and how people perceive them to be. Party alignment has rarely anything to do with personal agendas and motivations but it is how the party operates as a team and what cause (or lack thereof) that they are willing to take.

Determining party alignment can be decided by the group or judged by the DM based on their actions towards a variety of scenarios. Even if a party has a lawful good paladin but they still demand high rates to complete certain tasks, the party alignment would be far from lawful good. Conversely, even if majority of the party members are evil but they are willing to do jobs for good organizations, their party alignment might tend towards being neutral. Similarly, if a neutral party prefers causing havoc than righting wrongs, they might be seen to be more evil.

Although party alignment could be more clear cut with 4E's new alignments, I think it can get very interesting in the older model. If the party consist of a great mixture of alignments from both axis (lawful v chaos, good v evil), it will be interesting to see the party alignment when they are combined together.

One major benefit of having and determining party alignment is that it solves the aforementioned problem of PCs being constantly treated as righteous heroes. With a party alignment, it becomes easier for DMs to tailor-made specific plot hooks that would appeal to their party alignment, such as the opportunity to defeat evil for a good party, gold for neutral parties and power or revenge for evil ones. Party alignment takes the alignments of each member into consideration and how they are treated is reflected by their party alignment.

Another benefit is that a party alignment can be a source of adventure ideas. By knowing what plot hooks that the party will bite, it opens up opportunities for the party that would normally be not allowed if they were seen as heroes. A good party might not be interested in helping smugglers guard their goods from official guards but this might be considered by a neutral or evil party. At the same time, a neutral party might be interested in taking up an exploration assignment through dangerous areas for the sake of adventure than a good or evil party that sees no benefit in doing so since they don't accomplish anything for either causes.

The last benefit I can think of having a party alignment is that it helps to identify the relationship between characters and create relationships towards the party. Organizations would only approach parties with certain alignments that will fit into their goals or association. This could also distinguish between what type of employment that the party would usually find due to their party alignment. A neutral party might never be employed by a good religious order while an evil party might find themselves constantly attacked by them and vice versa. Organizations could also perceive themselves to be the enemy or friend of the party based on their alignment.

What do you think? Is there any other benefits of having party alignment and how would you determine your party alignment?

{Quest Log} Play by Facebook, Seriously?

Yes! I'm back!

I'm finally free from stressful hours of brain wrenching for assignments and all that's left are the finals which won't be taking up that much of my time. So it's time to talk about gaming.

While I was away doing my assignments, I did a little research on social networking sites. So in a half-crazed state of mind, a sudden idea struck me and asked could we use the technologies available in social networking sites to be a replacement of an online game table?

I'm not talking about applications like Tiny Adventures in Facebook but using the actual features and functions that are provided in these sites. And guess what. Without even looking or searching for the tonnes of weird to worthless applications that are in Facebook, I think it can be done.

Think about it.

In Facebook, the Wall is actually the game table where the DM narrates the description and your players who are from your friends list, respond by commenting on your status. The DM's profile could be used as an in-game journal or campaign wiki of a sort and there are photos which you can use to post description or illustration as visual aids.

It's like a PbF, a campaign wiki and an in-game journal all in one place.

For conflict resolutions, you could probably challenge your players in a certain Facebook game and if they could beat your score (which all of you would have to publish onto the profile) then they succeed. What the players are trying to do will determine what game is being played. So for example, you player wants to make a Geography check, challenge them to a game of GeoChallenge and the ones with the higher score wins.

Combat can be resolved in small round of Texas Hold Em Poker where players and monsters who lose all their chips is considered to be taken down.

Alright I think my mind hasn't fully recovered from all the stress so this might sound really crazy. If you think so then please ignore this but if not, tell me more ways that you would make this work.

Now I should go grab some long overdued sleep.

{Quest Log} RL and RP Don't Mix

From this week onwards, things would probably be very slow here on the Questing GM.

Unfortunately, while I really like to get on writing about my own Appendix N and a post for this month's blog carnival, real life priorities (i.e., assignments followed by final exams) are now my current concerns that will probably last throughout this week until mid June.

Although this sounds like I'm taking a short hiatus from my regular RPG blogging, I'll still be trying to cover the updates coming from Wizards and now Paizo. If not, you probably won't hear from me until all is settled and done.

While I'm dreading to face the next few weeks that will determine if I walk out of university with my degree and dignity intact, but I digress. Quest Log is all about gaming related topics. So let's talk about what I would like to do once I've achieved freedom.

• Now that I have a free and legal copy of H1 Keep on the Shadowfell, I intend to start reading, re-read and prep for this adventure so that I can run this once I get back to my gaming group in my hometown. I'll probably be posting my 'prep log' on this blog just to show you how I do things (for good or for ill).


• With more free time, I could also start reading more games to learn their new rules. Dissection and breakdown of these systems are probably also forthcoming for this blog. Haven't decided which rules I should go first but it should be anyone that is in my top ten list.


• I should also probably start to plan for a campaign since I haven't done so for a very long time. Maybe a revisit for my Githyanki Incursion campaign is in order for this one. It would probably start with my system I would be using to the main plot and so on. Then again, there are so many other campaigns that I feel like running.

I'm really looking forward to share more of my gaming thoughts but then first things first. Wish me luck and enjoy your gaming life.

{Quest Log} Rewarding Success and Failures in Skill Challenges

One of the common mistakes that 4E DMs make when using skill challenges in their adventures is that they often turn it into a plot road block. They expect their players to be able to overcome the challenge or else the pace of the adventure would grind to a halt.

One of the easiest way to counteract this problem is that DMs should look at the consequences of the skill challenge from both sides, whether the PCs succeed or fail. In the recent D&D podcast on skill challenges, the designers agreed that success and failure of skill challenges shouldn't be used to sink or swim a party from moving on. They are meant to be a challenge which should not deter the story from moving forward but move it into different direction either way whether by defeating the skill challenge or not. In most cases where a skill challenge is concerned about getting from point A to point B, a success could mean a smooth transition to the next step of the plot while a failure could eat up more resources or lead to a longer detour to reach the same point.

That's one way of looking at it, however, it's a very narrative approach and it does take a little thinking ahead on the part of the DM. While the idea of giving skill challenges a sort of objective where success and failure is a matter of how to get to that objective, it means that a DM has to think of 2 solutions to the same problem.

While it is certainly a reasonable method of making skill challenge feel more like a challenge than an absolute barrier but I find that embedding a reward and punishment mechanism isn't a fair way of seeing it. I don't think that a skill challenge should only reward successes and punish failures. Skill challenges should also be more like combat which is a common analogy of how a good skill challenge works. Although the PCs flee from combat but managed to defeat a few minions or sneak past them entirely, they still deserve a small share of XP from that encounter. Even if the PCs didn't intend to lose or run away from combat, at least they are still rewarded for their prowess and discretion all the same which makes them feel less horrible about themselves for not being able to defeat that encounter than getting a TPK.

So, the question is why not do the same for skill challenges?

What I am proposing is a much simpler but more mechanical way of giving the same feel of success and failure of a skill challenge without disrupting the flow of the game while at the same time not destroying their morale for failure. Give XP reward for accomplishing a skill challenges regardless of whether they succeed or not. Whereby, a DM would let a success lead to a larger amount of XP reward than a failure but either way it doesn't really punish players for failure. XP rewards could also be bigger the more complex the skill challenge is. This will cause the players in their mind to try and get the best results without having to worry whether they will succeed or fail the skill challenges. One benefit of this method is that you only have to think of one narrative solution to the same problem because the outcome would still be the same but it is a measurement of the degree of success.

Other ways of playing around with this idea is to distribute small XP packets to certain success gained from using certain skills. Make skill challenges look more like a grab for XP until they reach the maximum number of success or reach the minimum amount of failures. This may encourage the usage of primary skills over secondary skills in a skill challenge if the DM prioritizes certain options more over others. This can add a different dynamic in playing/running and designing skill challenges which might test the wit and resources of the players more than the PCs. There is more of a cost-benefit element that players will have to consider when undertaking such a skill challenge where they will have to decide if the risk of failing the skill challenge outweighs the XP reward behind it.

Another benefit of rewarding XP in skill challenges is that it becomes another source of character advancement. If you are having trouble with the idea that the only way for players to gain XP in their adventuring career is only by beating tougher and tougher monsters, skill challenges is most certainly a valid avenue to get XP for the less combat inclined characters. At best, this might put back some roleplaying into an otherwise combat-oriented game where it's not always about using swords to improve your character.

So what do you think? Will this idea work? Does anyone want to playtest this and share the results?

{Quest Log} The 8000 lb. Gorilla that We Love to Hate

It looks like there won't be a Word of Wizards today seeing that their site is still down for maintenance. This is probably one of the longest downtime they had in recent years. Since I missed yesterday's Quest Log (which was spend to write something else but I discarded it in the end), I thought that this would make a good replacement for your weekly Friday readings.

It has been quite an interesting month over at Wizards with quite a number of drastic things happening that has caused fans to condemn and cheer for the company.

Earlier this month as some gamers were catching their breath for Dave Arneson, Wizards made it worse by suddenly withdrawing all of their PDFs from sale by online retailers indefinitely due to piracy. It happened so suddenly that many were caught unaware and in the case of those in a different timezone, were caught in their sleep. Although the dusty stormclouds have settled down by the end of the week, Wizards had came back with several responses on the matter which helped explained the situation a little better. Last week, a phone call from Greg Leeds to one of the bloggers from the RPG Bloggers Network was the latest information that we had on Wizards' future plans about selling their older and electronic material so I guess we can consider this one pretty wrapped up.

Just then, Wizards suddenly dropped another bomb with a surprising move that shocked and awe. When Wizards made it clear that they won't be selling anymore PDFs, it certainly didn't cross most of our minds that Wizards would be giving them out for free at their website which is probably one of the main reasons why their site has been down for the day. If this was the 'alternative method of distribution' that Greg Leeds was referring to it was beyond all expectations. Honestly, I don't know what is the reason for all this. The same reason why does Wizards layoff great writers and staff at the launch of every new edition and Wizards have never been for one to give very convincing or clear answers. But if there's one way to gain back some goodwill, this is one that had it coming for a long time from Wizards.

However, I have to hand it to them that Wizards can really tug the heartstrings of their fans, if not the D&D community at large. Even as gamers are starting to divert or lose interest in their game since the OGL, the company can still influence many gamers with every decision that they make. It is just that 8000 lb. gorilla that nobody would ignore or leave alone. But do we really need such a huge company to run the hobby in such an impersonal way?

While P&P RPGs is a fast-growing hobby and Wizards is probably one of the main pushers behind it but I think we are still relatively small group. We aren't as massive as MMORPGers or console gamers but we are more interconnected. You see, RPGs is a bit different than these electronic mediums because we have a higher degree of social interaction in the game.

Sure, you can say that MMORPGers foster teamwork and friendship too but in a traditional P&P, there has to be a certain trust to be able to even play the game in the first place. Everyone has to be able to give up the same level of suspension of disbelief and not humiliated those that get into character or speak in funny voices to have a good and fun game. We invest more cooperation to get a game going and we don't usually leave a group unless it is a very last resort. It's not as simple as pulling the plug because you suck in a shouting match against other console gamers, it's more like losing a bunch of friends. This makes us more tightly knitted than other gaming communities even though we still have a fair share of incompatible moments with other gamers (old school vs. new school) but that social aspect is still as important to us despite those differences.

As a more emotionally/intellectually responsive community, I think we like to have friendly and warm chats with game publishers and designers. We don't want a corporate face that treats us as sales figures, pirates or whiners and don't give us a simple courtesy of saying something in return when asked. I really don't think gamers are habitual four-letter swearers and although our criticisms can be harsh on game design but we are even harsher to a company that doesn't seem to care about us enough to do something about it.

Maybe I'm seeing this the wrong way, maybe 4E is going to be a way for Wizards to grow a new, younger and more wired generation of gamers that would suck up everything that Wizards tells them. Maybe we are just too old or too rigid with our ways of gaming that Wizards decides to give us the ultimatum to change or be left to despair in your ways. Corporations want a corporate customer and we gamers are too emotional or too discerning for their demographic. They think they can tie a leash on our necks and we would be forced to follow their lead for the betterment of the hobby. They rather have docile fanboys than dynamic gamers.

It is the small time publishers that are still holding out an olive branch of the same friendliness in the industry that we experience on our gaming tables. They give us constant updates on what's going on with their latest products. They participate in forums quite often. They go around and talk to gamers and maybe let themselves be interviewed. They offer generous discounts of their products occasionally and they are pretty open about what's going on in their company if you ask them.

If you ask me, they are the ones that will be moving this industry forward and not some suit sitting behind a desk with a job position that has nothing to do with being a designer, editor or publisher. Gamers like their niche and the smaller companies are down in the field and having a social relationship with their niche, not from some high up office building. We are not one homogeneous potential market that can grow fat with profit and pay for intellectually stimulating items that can be mass-produced. We are more than that because our hobby is more than that.

I hope that Wizards has realized this with the recent turn of events that wherever they're going with this, it isn't going to appeal to anyone they hadn't mistreated already. It's not their track record that's going to damage this company, it's what they are doing to this hobby. I hope that Wizards' decision of freely giving out their PDFs is a good sign that Wizards is starting to see the need to get some goodwill back in this community and not as an industry.

I'm not saying all this because I have something against Wizards, I just think they are sailing towards the wrong sea with the nicest crew that they will ever find in the 'games industry' and we just want to play nice and have fun.

So about some group hug?